Such stories will hopefully evoke the empathy and emotion necessary to drive true, lasting reform.

In recent years, mass school shootings have become increasingly common. Where children once learned in safety, they now cower in fear. Yet, while many second amendment supporters claim that this sort of domestic terrorism represents the price we must pay to retain our rights, few truly know the horror today's children experience on a daily basis. We're familiar with the panic that arises when there's an actual active shooter on campus. But what actually goes through a child's mind when their school goes into lockdown?

Sarah Wine-Thyre recently took to Twitter to share her 12-year-old daughter's reaction to an active shooter lockdown. Though the drill ended up being just a precaution, her daughter received no updates throughout, leaving her and her classmates to fear for their lives. Actress, writer, and wife of Andy Richter couldn't believe her daughter's firsthand account and had to share her story with the world.

This afternoon, I received text alerts from my kids' school that they were on lockdown. I thought you might like to know what happens, from the perspective of my 12yo. I just picked her up from school and she was rattled and full of adrenalin.

"A robot voice came over the speakers telling us to get into our classrooms," Wine-There's daughter explained. "The teachers pulled down the blinds and made us crowd into the far corner of the classroom. We were all so scared and lots of kids were crying. My BF and I were holding each other. I hugged a kid who was really scared and crying really hard. We thought we were going to die. I said just in case we die, let's remember all our good times. My BF and I sang our favorite song to each other."

"What song was that?" I asked, holding back tears or sadness and rage.12yo: "Come On Eileen."Me: "Really?"Her: "It's a private joke, mom."Me: "OK"

I didn't want to turn the whole thing into a joke, so I asked her to describe it some more. When I picked her up, all the kids in the class were visibly shaken and giddy. They were still holding each other. I asked if they were given updates during the 45-minute ordeal.

"No, everything was really quiet [because] they want it to seem like no one is there so the intruder goes away," her daughter continued. "We were all just crammed together for 45 minutes and then we heard helicopters overhead and we thought we were going to be bombed. THAT was even scarier. We've done drills but we knew this was for real. We were all sure we were going to die, Mom. I'm so glad we didn't die."

A child's experience of a lockdown is one of terror. They don't know what's happening until it's over. Plenty of people see this as "the price of freedom." It's appalling that we do this to kids.

As Wine-Thyre notes, just the mere prospect of an active shooter was enough to traumatize these children. Her daughter's class was particularly nervous, as they were all worried that a potential shooter might be able to see them if they were to look through an inconvenient crack in the blinds.

One more thing the 12yo said? "There was one spot where the blinds weren't down all the way and we kept staring at it expecting some man's face to look in and see us and come in and kill us. We couldn't stop staring at that window." Horror in real life.

We need to listen to today's students, not just those who've survived mass shootings, but also those who attend every day and feel consumed by worry that their school could be next. Congress needs to understand that this "new normal" is anything but, as American children shouldn't have to risk their safety as they pursue their education.

While it's hard to believe that some of these legislators, many of them parents themselves, have yet to comprehend the severity of this situation, perhaps hearing more firsthand accounts, such as that of Wine-Thyre's daughter, will evoke the empathy and emotion necessary to drive true, lasting gun reform.